Gustav Mallinckrodt

Gustav Mallinckrodt (born August 7, 1799 in Dortmund , † November 17, 1856 in Cologne ) was a German early industrial entrepreneur and liberal politician.

Family and career beginnings

Mallinckrodt came from the noble family von Mallinckrodt , whose Dortmund branch did not carry the title of nobility. His father Theodor Mallinckrodt was a merchant in the Free Imperial City of Dortmund.

He attended grammar school in Dortmund, but left before graduating from high school. Mallinckrodt then did a commercial apprenticeship in Lippstadt and then went to Lübeck as a commercial clerk for a year . In 1820, together with JF Voigt, he founded a commissioning and shipping business in St. Petersburg . In 1823 he joined the tannery and leather shop of the recently deceased Georg Strohn in Wehringhausen and in the same year married the daughter Henriette Strohn. After she died a year later, Mallinckrodt married her sister Emilie in 1824. From this marriage came the later industrialist Gustav von Mallinckrodt and the industrialist Ernst Gustav von Mallinckrodt.

In 1825 Mallinckrodt gave up the company in Wehringhausen and together with Heinrich Volkmann set up a leather sole factory in Krombach . He also acquired shares in Siegerland mines and smelting works.

Entrepreneur in Cologne

In 1836 he moved to Cologne and concentrated on importing hides from South America . Business flourished and Cologne became a center of the leather trade, not least thanks to Mallinckrodt.

In addition, Mallinckrodt took part in the projects in the areas of finance, insurance and transport that were driven in particular by Gustav von Mevissen . In 1844 he and Mevissen were on the board of directors of the Rheinische Eisenbahngesellschaft . Mallinckrodt concentrated on the area from Bonn via Koblenz to Bingen . Mevissen and Mallinckrodt complemented each other in the mining sector. While Mevissen contributed his organizational knowledge, Mallinckrodt was able to use his technical knowledge from his time in Siegerland . Both founded the Cologne Mining Association in 1845 . Mallinckrodt was initially the technical director. The plan to found the "Kölnische Bank" together with Mevissen initially failed due to Prussian legislation.

Rhenish liberalism

Like Mevissen, Mallinckrodt was one of the leading figures in Rhenish liberalism in Vormärz . He was one of the founders of the first Rheinische Zeitung . He protested against their ban. Since the mid-1840s he was active in the spirit of the liberal movement, especially in Siegerland. In the revolution of 1848 he continued to support a moderately liberal constitutional tendency. In 1850 he was elected to the first chamber of the Prussian state parliament for the Arnsberg district , but could hardly play an effective role because of the majority.

Later entrepreneurial action

Mallinckrodt family grave (Melaten cemetery)

After the revolution, entrepreneurial activity again became more important than politics for Mallinckrodt. Together with relatives he founded a textile factory in Burscheid at the end of 1848 . Together with Mevissen, he was once again involved in the transformation of the crisis-ridden bank in Schaaffhausen into a stock corporation. The bank should focus on promoting industry. Mallinckrodt was also involved in the establishment of the “Concordia” life insurance in 1852, the Kölnische Maschinenbau-AG (1855) and to a large extent in the expansion of the Siegerland ore mining through various corporations. This included the establishment of the Cologne-Müsen Mining Association in 1856 .

His grave is located in the Melaten cemetery in Cologne (HWG No. 105).

literature

• Friedrich Zunkel:  Gustav Mallinckrodt. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 15, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-428-00196-6 , p. 733 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Friedrich Zunkel: Gustav Mallinckrodt (1799-1856). In: Cologne entrepreneurs in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. (= Rheinisch-Westfälische Wirtschaftsbiographien, Volume 12). Aschendorff, Münster 1986, pp. 96-120.
• Christoph Franke: Economy and politics as a challenge, The liberal entrepreneurs (by) Mallinckrodt in the 19th century (= magazine for company history, supplement 88), Stuttgart 1995.